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| 2005/1/28 [Science/GlobalWarming] UID:35944 Activity:high |
1/27 Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb.
Or, how "nukular" became an official pronunciation in websters:
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=nuclear&x=0&y=0
\_ How is "nukular" any worse than "comfterble", which is now the
standard pronounciation of "comfortable"? Word pronounciations
change.
\_ sigh... why don't you browse m-w a little closer:
http://www.m-w.com/help/faq/pronounce.htm
\_ What do they mean "feb(y)were" is not "acceptable, just common"
I don't know any native speakers of English who pronounce
the "r" in February! (then again, i grew up in the south...)
\_ http://m-w.com is clearly incorrect, even with the disclaimer they have.
Oh well. Dumbasses. I bet there was a significant minority or
perhaps majority on the Merriam-Webster staff who disagreed or
would disagree strongly with how this was done, and I'll settle
for that notion. |
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| www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=nuclear&x=0&y=0 nucleus <nuclear reaction> <nuclear physics> b : used in or produced by a nuclear reaction (as fission) <nu clear fuel> <nuclear waste> <nuclear energy> c : being a weapon whos e destructive power derives from an uncontrolled nuclear reaction : of, produced by, or involving nuclear weapons <the nuclear age> <nuclear war> : armed with nuclear weapons <nuclear powers> d : of, relating to, or powered by nuclear energy <a nuclear submarine> <the nuclear deb ate> <a nuclear plant> usage Though disapproved of by many, pronunciations ending in \-ky&-l&r\ have been found in widespread use among educated speakers including scie ntists, lawyers, professors, congressmen, US cabinet members, and at l east one US president and one vice president. |
| www.m-w.com/help/faq/pronounce.htm Bot h of those pronunciations are clearly preceded by the obelus mark \ \ (which looks like a division sign). This mark indicates "a pronunciation variant that occurs in educated speech but that is considered by some t o be questionable or unacceptable." We are definitely not advoca ting that anyone should use those pronunciations or that they should aba ndon the others that are regarded as more acceptable. Many people object to those pronunciations of February and nuclear on the basis that they do not conform to the spelling of the word. However, to say "the word is spelled , and therefore should be pronounced " d oesn't make any sense. Spelling is not a legitimate basis for determinin g pronunciation, for the following reasons: 1 English spelling is highly irregular. For example, "move", "dove", an d "cove" are spelled similarly but pronounced differently. Likewise, "to," "too," and "two" are spelled differently and pronounced the same. For example, the "c" represents three different sounds in "electrical", "electricity" and "electrician", but is spelled the same in all to show that the words are related. I ndeed, only spoken language can be truly considered "language." Writing is a collection of symbols meant to represent spoken language. This has never been done for English (the spelling of which has never been regularized in the first place), so what we use for written language is actually largely based on the spoken language of several centuries ago. We have an extensive collection of file s which date back to the 19th century. Language is changing all of the t ime in all respects, and any dictionary which purports to be an accurate description of the language in question must be constantly updated to r eflect these changes. All words were pronounced differently at some time in the past. There is simply no scholarly basis for preferring one pron unciation over another, and the term "correct" pronunciation doesn't mea n anything objectively. To not list all pronunciation variants would be irresponsible and a failure of our mission to provide a serious, scholar ly, record of the current American English language. |
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